Sterile barrier assemblies such as surgical drapes are known for establishing barriers between surgical components during surgery. For instance, a surgical drape may be used to provide a barrier between a robotic arm and an end effector attached to the robotic arm. In surgery, the robotic arm is treated as being nonsterile, while the end effector is sterile. The surgical drape creates a barrier between the robotic arm and the end effector to prevent contamination of a sterile field in which the end effector is operating.
Typically, surgical drapes placed between the robotic arm and the end effector have perforations or other openings through which different connections can be made between the robotic arm and the end effector, such as mechanical connections and/or electrical connections. Such perforations are acceptable, so long as they are covered during the surgery. If the end effector fails during the surgery and needs to be replaced, or if a different end effector is desired, and the perforations become uncovered, standard operating room sterility protocol may dictate that the surgical drape requires replacement before a different end effector can be installed. Removal of the surgical drape and installation of a new surgical drape takes up valuable time, so replacement is undesirable.
Other surgical drapes are not intentionally perforated, but instead are compressed between the robotic arm and the end effector. When compressed, if the surgical drape is formed of thin plastic, unintended rips or tears may occur. Even when the surgical drape does remain intact, positioning of the end effector on the robotic arm is imprecise as a result of the compressibility of the surgical drape. For example, the surgical drape may compress unequally. Further, a thick drape made out of conventional draping materials could deflect under normal end effector loads. Small deflections are magnified out to a tool center point (TCP) of the end effector and can become intolerable due to errors in positioning accuracy of the TCP.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for addressing one or more of these deficiencies.